After coming back to Kolkata, I bought this book on Bengali cuisine by Shankar; the book is in Bengali and titled “Bangalir Khawadawa” (aka, Food and Feasting of Bengalis). The book has a great deal of information of various dishes, sweets, chops, and restaurants in Kolkata. The book discusses culinary skills in Bengalis of yore in great detail. But the only thing that I missed in the book was a special section on rasgulla. Which is kind of disappointing since rasgulla (or rasogolla, rashogolla) is the most widely consumed sweet among Bengalis. Well, this post isn’t a book review (it would be a later post). Let’s talk about Rasogollar Payesh.

Rasogolla in Bengal

Rasgulla was invented by the sweet makers (or moira in Bengali) of Puri, the famous temple town in Orissa. In the mid 19th century Oriya cooks were hired at the rich Bengali households and with them arrived the coveted recipe of rasogolla. In 1868, a Bong sweet maker, Nabin Chandra Das refined the sweet delicacy to have a better shelf life. That was the birth of sponge rasgulla.

All I am saying this is because I got very excited with the book, and also a couple of days back I prepared a derivate of this ecstatic rasogolla and named it rasgollar payesh or rasgulla pudding or you can even call it ras malai with a slight twist. This is such a simple recipe that you can even prepare when your guests are knocking at the door. I had bought a can of rasgulla and just thought of experimenting with those sweet cheesy balls. The preparation was an instant hit and those who had the dish couldn’t stop licking their fingers (well not literally. They used spoons you see. But you get the drift. (Bhavnaon ko Samjho).

Rasgulla syrup (Rash / Raus): 1 cup, pour in more if you want it very sweet

Custard powder: 2 tablespoon

Raisin (Kismis / Kishmish): 20-25

Preparation:

Keep aside half cup of milk and pour in the rest of milk in a thick bottom pan and simmer till the volume reduces to three-fourth

Take the custard powder in a small bowl and gradually add the milk that was kept aside to make a smooth batter

Pour the custard mix into the simmering milk with constant stirring to avoid lump formation

Add one cup of the syrup from the can, I used little less than that as we don’t like too much sweet in desserts

Simmer again for about 5 min with constant stirring

Now, drop in the rasgullas one after another and take out of flame

Garnish with raisins

You can keep it in the freezer for sometime or serve it just like that

Hot Tips – You can leave out the custard powder. In that case it’s better to simmer the milk for sometime more so that the volume reduces to half the original, and add ½ teaspoon of cardamon powder or one teaspoon of vanilla essence.

Whole year long every Bong waits for the Durga Puja to arrive and just within 4 days the festivity all over. Saptami, Ashtami, Nabami and the last day Dashami makes the end of all these grandeur. As the mythology says Goddess Durga bids farewell to her parents’ home and goes back to Kailash where her husband Lord Shiva resides. Puja in Kolkata is always special. Here in Bangalore though I got to see three idols and had a little taste of the whole festivity.
Bijoya Dashami starts with the immersion of the goddess. We have a custom to share sweets to every near and dear ones. I don’t have much near and dear ones here in this land, thousands of miles away from my native. So to keep the custom going I had something special prepared for my friends.
Sweet is the word that comes to mind when its Bijoya Dashami time. I am no exception. When everybody around wants to loose weight you can not just burden them with a huge plate of sweet, so caramel pudding is just to satisfy your sweet tooth as well as keep your calorie conscious self happy.

• Boil the milk continuously for a long time so that it becomes one-fourth of its original volume.
• Add the bread crumbs and bring to boil.
• Keep aside to cool.

Milk kept to cool

• Take the eggs along with vanilla and stir it well so that it becomes less viscous and the vanilla gets well mixed with the egg white.
• Put the beaten eggs to the cooled milk and pour the whole mixture into a small steel tiffin box.
• In a deep pan put the tiffin box and pour in water till the half of the box is under water.
• Put the whole apparatus over flame and heat till vanilla smell comes out of it. Add water if necessary.
• When the pudding is done take it out of flame and let it cool.
• Open the lid and invert the whole pudding over a plate. Pour in a tablespoon of caramel and decorate with dry fruits of choice.
• Chill and serve.
Enjoy the caramel pudding as dessert for dinner or just serve it.

With milk and eggs this one is a very healthy food for everyone of any age group I am sending this to Diet Food Event hosted by Divya.